Robin Williams
 "Author of a lot of Macintosh books." Editor's Favorites: The Little Mac Book The Mac is not a typewriter A Blip in the continuum PageMaker 4: An Easy Desk Reference (And, owner of some great hats! --Ed.)  |
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| How did you personally get into using the Macintosh family of computers? |
Kicking and screaming. I wanted nothing to do with computers. Then I used a Mac. It was love at first sight. It made perfect sense. I was teaching graphic design at a college and that little Mac just slipped right into my life. Thank gawd. | |
| Status: | I've been called a lot of things. Take your pick. | |
First Mac:
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The brand-new Mac SE with 1 meg of ram, a 20 meg hard disk, and a 9-inch screen. It cost $3,000. I had to take out a loan to buy it. I wrote *The Little Mac Book,* *The Mac is not a typewriter,* and my first PageMaker book on it. | |
Current Mac:
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Bondi blue iMac; 2 G3s; four 7200s; an 8100; a little, lightweight PowerBook; a big fat G3 PowerBook. And a stupid PC. | |
| When did you get your first modem? | 1989. I was one of the first 150,000 people on AOL. The modem was a fancy one that connected at the blazing speed of 1200 baud! | |
| Who did you call first? | I wrote a message to Guy Kawasaki because I had gotten the modem in the first place to do some work for him. But I wrote the message at 2 a.m. and was afraid to send it because it might wake him up. I waited until morning to send it so if the phone rang on the modem it wouldn't bother his sleep. | |
| Present Occupation: | Writer. | |
| Claim to Fame: | Long legs. | |
| Dream Job: | Woodcarver or a torch singer. |
| Not So Random Thoughts... | |||
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| Was there ever a time in your life that you had to "Think Different?" What was the situation and what did you do? | |||
| I wrote computer books that were actually interesting, fun to read, and easy to understand. I was told they weren't "appropriate" for a professional market so I published them myself. Now I am in the process of exposing my theory that the works of William Shakespeare were actually written by a woman. No joke. It's true. Watch for my new web site. | |||
| How has using the Macintosh computer changed your life? | |||
| Well, when I got my Mac I was raising three children by myself on about $11,000 a year, living in a 2-bedroom, 750-square foot house, working several part-time jobs so I could be home with my kids as much as possible. Now I have a big house on 2.5 acres and make a heck of a lot more than $11,000, but I still get to be home with my kids. | |||
| What is the weirdest thing in your office right now? | |||
| Oh dear, which to pick? The dead sunflower that's so dead its face is on the shelf? Or the origami horsehead hanging in the closet door? Or the gargoyle clock on the wall? Or the big box of Flutie Flakes on display? Or the photo of the Statue of David's butt (I took it myself)? Or the broken jar that contains pieces of kryptonite--no no, it's not kryptonite, it's pieces of a meteor given to me by a witch? Or the brightly colored, three-foot tall Mexican plaster statue of a buxom chiquita in the windowsill? Or the Munch-style poster from the Roswell 50th-anniversary-of-the-alien-spacecraft-crash-landing festival? | |||
| My Passions are: | |||
| Steel drums, Shakespeare, reading, moonrises, John Tollett, wood, live theater, dancing, traveling. | |||
| If you could have dinner with one person dead or alive who would that person be and what would you ask them? | |||
| Mary Sidney. I would ask her if she knew her sons were going to publish her plays under someone else's name as soon as she died. | |||
| Do you play a musical instrument and/or are you in a band? | |||
| I can play a little bit of the accordion, a little bit of the pennywhistle, a little bit of the harmonica, a little bit of the piano, a whole lot of the comb, I'm not too bad on the spoons, and when my kids were little I was pretty good on the pots and pans. But what I would REALLY love to learn to play are steel drums. Someday. | |||
| When I grow up I want to be: | |||
| A torch singer or a mermaid. | |||
| The question never asked: | |||
| I can't tell you that. |
| Just The Facts, Please... | ||||
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| Biographical Tidbits: | Single mother of three great kids. | Education: | An AA in graphic design from Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California. I wanted to go to Davis to veterinary school, but I got pregnant and needed something I could do while taking care of my baby alone. | |
| Location at Birth: | Berkeley, California. | Current Location: | Santa Fe, New Mexico. | |
| Where you've been in between: |
Many places but not everywhere. | Astrological Sign: | Libra. | |
| Available? | (Marital Status) Single | Chat Nick: | No Response. | |
| Favorite Books: | Les Miserables, anything by Thomas Hardy. | Favorite Music or Band: | Bonnie Raitt | |
| Favorite Food: | Apricot pie. | Cat or Dog Person: | Dog. Definitely dog. | |
| Robin's Personal Web Site | |
| Robin's Professional Web Site | |
| Favorite Web Site: | Urls Internet Cafe |
| Favorite Color imac: |  |
| "Your attitude is your life." |
Created Sunday, February 21, 1999; Edited: